


the kids are running free tonight

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Boys In Love, Fluff, M/M, a lil bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-08
Updated: 2014-02-08
Packaged: 2018-01-11 14:09:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1174001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’m not going anywhere… you can’t get rid of me, alright? Our parents screwed up relationships don’t define ours.” </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>In which Harry and Niall are two teenage boys in love, Niall's parents aren't anymore, and Harry just wants Niall to believe that he isn't leaving. Not then not ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the kids are running free tonight

**Author's Note:**

> I had been listening to lots of Lorde when I wrote this. Also title is from Where The Kids Are by Blondfire, a great song btw.

Niall woke up to goose bump ridden skin, sneezing come from down stairs, and he sighed trying his hardest to swallow past the lump in his throat already fed up. He hastily pushed himself off the bed with his blankets wrapped around his shoulders and his hands shaking a terrible amount, the sneezing downstairs was subsiding but he was still freezing cold. He turned his head and clenched his jaw when he saw that it was three in the freakin’ morning, everything was so ridiculous lately. He hissed under his breath when his bare feet touched the cold floor and he padded outside of his room, wrapping the blankets tighter around himself looking for purchase in the heat.  

From the top of the stairs he could see the soft yellow glow of the kitchen light so he crept down there to unsurprisingly find his mom leaning on their marble counter top and sipping a bottle of Pinot Noir. She did that when her and Niall’s dad fought which was practically every day now and she always turned off the heat leaving the house feeling like ice which Niall guessed was poetic or something seeing how everything was fragile nowadays. Everybody was always wound up too tight it reminded Niall of one of those toys he had when he was younger with the twists in the back and how sometimes he kept twisting and twisting until he couldn’t anymore, until there was a certain limit where he had to stop or he would probably break it.

People were a lot like that.

“Darling, what are you doing up?” His mom asked him when she spotted him standing there staring into space. She was wearing one of her dresses from back when she was a Vegas showgirl; she liked to talk about her past a lot almost as much as she liked crying. Niall remembered when his older brother Greg up and left them and how his mom had sat down and sobbed so much she could barely open her eyes after an endless nap. Sometimes Niall was shocked that she stuck around, sometimes he hoped she did it for him because he was the only thing she had left but he knew that she did it for her sanity most of the time… well the small sliver of it that she had left that was.

“Couldn’t sleep.” It was part of the truth he supposed. She sneezed and he knew that she herself was cold but it was a fighting tradition and then when she and Niall’s dad were getting along for five minutes the house was warm and she would smile and her cheeks would get all rosy. She always used to tell him stories about how her and his father met, about how she was in Vegas and he was there for his friend’s bachelor party and it kind of just happened. She was pretty, young, and beautiful and he was handsome, calculating, and a gentleman. Match made in heaven. But what happens when the angels are cast out?

“Come sit here with mama.” She said patting the countertop beside her but Niall shook his head no.

“I’m fine, mom. I just wanted to check up on you was all.”

“Think your old mom is getting crazy?” Her blue eyes looked slightly grey when she said that and a lot empty. A shiver- not temperature induced- ran down Niall’s spine.

“Course not, mom. I could never.” He walked over to her and kissed her forehead. “Get some sleep.”

“It’s hard sometimes.” She said and Niall touched her cold bony shoulders.

“Try please.” She didn’t say anything so Niall backed up, contemplated getting something to drink but just left it alone knowing that the same drained feeling wouldn’t go away just by drinking a glass of milk. And he wasn’t going to sleep not then at least.

He took one last look at his mom who at least made an effort to smile for his sake and then he was walking back up the stairs. He looked at the closed door of his parent’s bedroom imagined his father sleeping there peacefully because he was way too sophisticated to sleep on the couch, subjecting his wife to late night alcohol binges and 3 am ‘what ifs and could’ve beens’ Niall swore on all that was holy and pure that he would never become like his father. A soulless man.

Safely in his room he shut the door and went over to where his phone was resting on his antique davenport that his mother had insisted he keep in his room because some dead great-grandma he had never met in his life had been passing desks down instead of normal things like necklaces. He turned his phone on and when he found the number he was looking for he quickly sent out a text: _be here._

\--

He could hear the clunky old engine of Harry’s jeep pulling up to the front of his house. He was already dressed in pajama bottoms, a white t-shirt, and some slippers. He stuck his head out the window and a body blush bloomed over his skin like zinnias in the spring. Harry stuck his head out the car window and yelled,

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair!” Niall giggled and tried to muffle it by covering his mouth with his hands.

“Shut up you’ll wake up the whole neighborhood, doofus.” He hissed softly and Harry shrugged,

“Anything for you, darling.” Niall rolled his eyes and then cautiously reached his hand out to the tree branch right in front of his window. Like a primate his long legs stretched out until he was literally swinging down the tree. He knew if he snuck out the front door his mother would start talking asking where he was going asking why he was hanging out with that Styles boy, the one who had gone to juvie for six months for having drugs, and the one that would kick babies on the weekend whichever rumor she chose to believe that week (even though the first one wasn’t a rumor more of just misconstrued chatter).

Niall slid into the passenger side of Harry’s car and while the outside of the car was not in great shape the inside was impeccable and it always smelled of peaches and strawberries, kind of like Harry smelled like with an underlying of cinnamon and pine.

Harry leaned over and captured his lips in a kiss and Niall’s frozen skin and insides melted into something a little like love. He pulled back not wanting to get carried away and not wanting his mother to look out the window and see him making out with the neighborhood pariah.

“Drive.” He said softly and Harry nodded not saying anything. Niall turned on the radio and that mix tape that Niall had made for Harry on his birthday started up and he smiled looking over at his boyfriend. Sometimes he wondered how people could think Harry out of all people dangerous. They’d been dating for a whole year, Niall being the only person to actually talk to Harry when he got out of juvie. Harry was probably the most real person at their public school, the way he stuck out was unpretentious not something that drew attention to itself and Niall liked that. He liked the solitary way he could just be with Harry, his long limbs wrapped around Niall’s smaller frame. They were just seventeen but the way he felt with Harry equaled years and years of wisdom.

When Harry pulled up to the empty tennis court they both stepped out of the car Harry immediately going over to Niall and wrapping his arms around Niall bringing him so close that there was not a breath of space between them. Niall rested his head on Harry’s chest and took in the softness of the February air. The wind was sort of brutal but the heat between them could burn the whole town down.

The tennis court had been their spot since they began dating, since Harry showed Niall where he went to just get away from the talk of the old women and the sadness of his mother for being shunned. Niall understood Harry’s fears (spiders, dying, being another statistic) and his ambitions (getting out of their fucking small town, taking Niall and hitching a ride to Canada because he heard they had free healthcare their), all Niall knew was that he would follow Harry Styles anywhere.

Their backs were pushed up against the chain-link fence and they were curled up around each other. Niall’s knees were pulled up to his chest while Harry’s endless legs were stretched out in front of him. Harry didn’t say anything and Niall knew he wouldn’t because he always gave Niall time to collect his thoughts, time to figure out what he was feeling and what he was going to say. That was the thing about good listeners; you couldn’t just not give them something to listen to.

“I don’t know how I’ll be able to bear living in that house anymore. Mom’s severely depressed and dad is just being dad, stoic and uncompassionate. It drives me up the wall and I fear that I will be like them, lonely and sad at three am.” Niall sighed not really knowing what he was just saying, just letting the words tumble out of him. “I really don’t want to end up lonely, Harry.” Niall’s skin bristled with goose bumps and Harry kissed his exposed shoulder blade not saying anything. They reveled in each other’s company.

“I’m really offended that you would ever think I would let you go lonely.” He said lonely like a conservative Southern mother would say ‘gay’ or ‘blacks’ like it was the worst thing in the world.

“I don’t think that’s your choice to decide.”

“You’re my boyfriend. It’s my job to keep those thoughts out of your head.”

“Maybe you’ll leave too.”

“Don’t kill the vibe, baby. I ain’t ever gonna leave.”

“How would I know that?” Niall asked moving over missing Harry’s lips on his skin. He swallowed and looked at his boyfriend who had an eyebrow raised.

“Cause I’m here now aren’t I? If I wanted to leave I would’ve done it by now.” Niall flinched and Harry rolled his eyes and grabbed Niall’s hand pulling him close again. “I’m not going anywhere… you can’t get rid of me, alright? Our parents screwed up relationships don’t define ours.”

“Maybe it does. Maybe growing up with something like that makes you believe it’s normal.”

“Or maybe we break that. Maybe we don’t become our parents. You aren’t some show girl dancing in Vegas like your mother was and I’m not dead because driving drunk is my specialty like it was my father’s. We aren’t them, Niall.” Harry looked intent on getting him to believe that, his eyebrows slightly narrowed and his eyes serious. Usually Harry had that uninterested look on his face the one that kind of intimidated Niall because sometimes he felt boring even if Harry assured him that the uninterested look was his regular face.

“Okay.” Niall whispered all the energy that he hadn’t realized was in him deflating, retreating back into the recess of his body. Harry’s lips grazed his temple and stayed there for a bit.

“Valentine’s day is coming up.” Niall said successfully sliding into another subject.

“I know.”

“There were huge teddy bears at Wal-Mart the other day. I think they’re still there.”

“I assume they are.”

“I like teddy bears.”

“I know you do, baby.”

“And dark chocolate.”

“Dark chocolate is disgusting.”

“You’re disgusting.” Harry huffed out a laugh and reached over to peck the side of his lip. Niall’s cheeks flamed up because they always did when Harry kissed him or was around him. “Sorry for calling you disgusting.”

“I forgive you.”

“We should do something for Valentine’s Day right?”

“If you want to sure.”

“I just want you.”

“You want things you already have.”

“You’re corny.”

“Maybe.”

“But I’m in love with you. All your corny bits and your crazy shit.”

“That should be a song.”

“We’ll write it. We’ll sing in jazz clubs, you’ll be hopelessly in love with me.”

“Already am, vanilla ice… already am.”

**Author's Note:**

> Personal blog: http://talklovelytome.tumblr.com/  
> Writing blog: http://my-hummingbirdheart.tumblr.com/


End file.
